Herman schoeee



March 17, 1931. H. SCHORER 1,796,898

' DAM Filed Dec. 27, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 @Ofic a QZ 31a/vento@ f/ffPMA /v Sago PER Patented Mar. 17, 1931 nrrn 'HERMAN SCHORER, OF OAKLAND, CALFORNIA Y DAM Application filed December 27, 1926.. Serial No. 157,370.

This invention relates to dams. ln the drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional view of a dam;

Figure 2 shows a curve representing the curve of the columns shown in Figure 1;

Figure 8 shows the curve known as the catenary of uniform strength;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary elevational view of Figure 1 partly in section, looking in the direction of the arrow 4 of Figure l;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary elevational view of Figure 1 looking in the direction of the arrow 5;

Figure 6 shows a column of the dam and a diagram of the forces acting thereon when the column is free from water pressure; and

Figure 7 is a diagrammatic cross section through a plurality of the hexagonal columns of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawings for a more detailed description thereof, the numeral 10 indicates the ground on which the dam 11 is built, while the numeral 12 indicates the body of water held by the dam, as shown in Figure 1.

The dam 11 comprises a plurality of hol low arched or curved columns 15 which may be made of any suitable material, such as concrete, for example, and these columns are curved in upstream direction. Y

The columns may be made integral with each other if desired, as shown at 16 in Figure 4 or they may be constructed as units adjacent each other. At its upper end the dam terminates in a crest 21 comprising a series of semi-cylindrical members 22 spaced .byY

flat sections 23, the latter sections having webs 24 extending rearwardly therefrom and the webs merging into the rear faces of registering tubes as shown at 25.

rlhe columns may be of any suitable cross section but are shown in the drawings as being hexagonal.

The hollow columns are closed at their upper ends by shells 18 of any suitable form, being shown in the drawings as ellipsoidal shells. lt will be seen from Figure 1 that the upstream face of the dam or that formed by the shells is inclined to the horizontal; this feature, provides against the sliding of the dam on the foundation with the minimum amount of material in the dam and the mentioned angle is preferably between 40o-and 600.

Thewater pressure acting on the face of a column of my construction may be divided into a horizontal component H, and a vertical component V, as shown in Figure 2, the horizontal component H is constant from the top to the bottom of the arched column, while the vertical component at any point along the curve shown in Figure 2 consists of the component V1 plus the weight Vc of the column above the given point. rl`he sum of the component V1 and Vc may be designated as V2. rlhe component V2, it will be readily appreciated, is largest at the ground. rl`he center line of the column is curved so that the resultant force iR is always tangent to the curve. By making the thickness of the column walls so that the unit stress therein is uniform throughout, the shape of the center line is a catenary of uniform strength, which is illustrated in Figure 3, the equation of which is: c

t t .1 e =cos; or also e COS w C rlhis curve is well known and is described inHigher Mathematics by Merriman and Woodward, page 147.

(1) rlhe term 622.7183 is the base of the natural logarithms` (2) The term .1/ is the ordinate of the curve of the catenary of uniform strength as shown in Fig. 3.

(3) rlhe term m is the abscissae of the curve of the catenary of uniform strength as shown in Fig. 3. Y

(4) C is defined as the ratio of the unit stress of the catenary of uniform strength to the unit weight of the same catenary.

By selecting a unit stress for the concrete and by determining its unit weight, the shape ofthe curve is fixed as is also the thickness of the walls at any given ypoint for a given water pressure on top of the column.

.Whenvthe water pressure is not acting on the columns there is only the weight of the structure to be transmitted to the ground. The stresses for this condition are illustrated in Figure G. ln each column the weight C acting vertically downward can be divided into two components, one acting along the column axis labeled A, and the other at right angles to A and labeled B.

lt will be seen from the foregoing that when the dam is subjected to water pressure the load is transmitted by direct compression parallel to the center line of the columns, so that the columns have maximum strength under the most desirable condition.

lf desired, steel reinforcements may be provided in the column walls to take care of small bending stresses where necessary.

l claim:

l. A dem comprising a plurality of ad jacent hollow curved columns closed at their upper ends and inclined in upstream direction, each column having Walls increasing in thickness trom its top to its bottom.

2. A dam comprising a plurality of curved columns closed at their upper ends and inclined in upstream direction, and each column having an axis substantially of thetorm of the catenary of uniform strength.

3. Adam comprising a plurality of curved hollow overlying columns closed at their up- Jer ends, the columns curving in upstream direction, said columns being disposed at an angle to the horizontal and having walls which increase in thickness from their tops to their bottoms.

A. A dam comprising a plurality of curved overlying columns closed at their upper ends, the columns curving in upstream direction, said columns being disposed at an angle to the horizontal and having Walls which increase in thickness from their tops to their bottoms and the walls of the respective co1- umns increasing in thickness progressively from the top to the bottom column.

5. A dam for holding water or the like comprising a plurality of columns curved along the lines of principal compressive stress and inclined toward the Water and interconnected to have their ends present a Watertight face to the Water.l

6. A dam for holding water or the like comprising a plurality of hollow columns curved along the lines of principal compressive stress and inclined toward the water and closed and interconnected at the upper ends to have the latter present a Water-tight face.

.7. A dam comprising a plurality of overlying curved columns closed at their upper ends disposed at an angle to the ground inclined in upstream direction7 each column increasing in thickness from its top to its bottom, and the respective columns increasing in thickness progressively from the top to the tace of the dam.

HERMAN SCHGRER. 

